Harvard Professor Sued Chinese Restaurant for $4

An unprecedented situation has the media buzzing as a Harvard professor has become viral on the internet after complaining about the fact that a Chinese restaurant charged him more than it should have. Granted, the customer is always right and, of course, we are all entitled to being treated with fairness in all establishments we enter. The Harvard professor sued the Chinese restaurant for $4.

Benjamin Edelman, the professor in question, has both a Ph.D and a J.D. from the prestigious Harvard University, was outraged after the owners of the Chinese restaurant attempted to overcharge him $4. In accordance with Massachusetts laws, the Harvard professor reminded the owners of the restaurant that their outdated menus were in serious violation of advertising regulations.
He made a complaint about the fact that the Chinese restaurant, Sichuan Garden from Brookline, Massachusetts charged him different prices for the ordered food than was displayed on the restaurant’s online menu.

Harvard professor Edelman works as a consultant for giant companies like the New York Times, AOL, the NFL, Microsoft and Wells Fargo. His job is to prevent and detect online fraud, says on his official website. The Harvard professor sued Chinese restaurant because he was expecting to pay $53.35, as those were the prices listed on the restaurant’s website. The Harvard professor’s order included spicy shredded chicken with garlic sauce, stir fried chicken with spicy capsicum, sautéed prawns with roasted peanut and chili sauce and braised fish filet with roasted chili and Napa cabbage.

The manager of the Chinese restaurant responded to the Harvard professor saying that the prices on the website were out of date and will be updated soon. The professor was not happy with this reply and accused the Chinese restaurant of overcharging the customers on purpose and asked for a $12 refund. The professor argued that he should get triple the money because of the state of Boston consumer protection statute.

The Harvard professor didn’t stop there. He also spoke to the local officials to have the restaurant compensate all the customers who have been overcharged. Edelman said that the town officials refused to intervene in this matter, but the Chinese restaurant agreed to give the professor half of his total bill back.